According to CBC’s Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning are looking to move veteran left winger Ryan Malone; if they can’t, they will likely choose to buy him out of his contract.

Here’s the comment, from Friedman’s 30 Thoughts column:

I'm hearing Yzerman is trying to trade Ryan Malone. Tampa Bay would prefer to avoid a buyout payout and the Lightning are offering a draft pick as an enticement. Malone has a no-move clause in his contract until July 1, which gives him some control of the situation. It is a limited no-trade after then.

Malone missed 24 games last season with a variety of ailments, scoring just six goals and two assists in the 24 games he did play. He averaged just over 20 goals per season in the four years preceding 2013 despite missing time each year. He has one year remaining on his contract, a deal with two years remaining at a $4.5 million cap hit and only a combined total of $5 million over both season in actual salary.

Scouting Report

Here (in part) is McKeen’s Hockey writing on Malone in their 2012-13 Yearbook:

[B]ig, tough forward blessed with soft hands, strong arms, and deceptive quickness .. propelled by a smooth comfortable stride that is long and powerful .. not the most intuitive player – and still suffers lapses in energy and focus .. puts out a good effort most nights now however .. determined and courageous driving to the net and creating space for linemates .. deployed successfully as a net presence on the power play .. excels making plays in traffic and along the boards and is adept at tips and deflections, aided by solid body control .. generates impressive shooting velocity from a minimal windup .. provides a strategic size and power component to Tampa’s mix .. always best to budget for downtime given his brash approach.

The latter line is one of the primary concerns with respect to Malone; the 33 year old has missed just over one-quarter of Tampa Bay’s games over the last four seasons.

A Statistical Lens

What I'd like to do is look at a number of performance-related statistics. I'm going to look, year by year, at four categories, which are as follow:

CorsiRel. "Corsi" is shorthand for shot attempts plus/minus - all the shots, missed shots, and blocked shots that a player was on the ice for 5-on-5 over an average one-hour period. The "Rel" part stands for relative - what we're doing there is adjusting for team strength.

5-on-5 Points/60. Just like regular points, only adjusted for an average hour of ice-time.

ZoneStarts. Taking offensive zone and defensive zone faceoffs, and expressing them as a percentage. If a player was on the ice for 70 offensive zone faceoffs and 30 defensive zone faceoffs, he would have a 70% offensive zone start, and we'd expect him to do better than a player with 30 offensive zone and 70 defensive zone faceoffs (30% zone start).

Quality of Competition rank. The player's rank among active forwards on his team in Behind the Net's Quality of Competition (we're using the Corsi-based one, though the site also offers a goal-based one and the difference between the two is small). This gives us an idea of the kind of opponents Malone typically played against.

Season

Team

CorsiRel

5v5 Points/60

ZoneStart

QC Rank.

2007-08

Pittsburgh

6.4

1.94

51.1

11th

2008-09

Tampa Bay

10.9

2.36

53.0

10th

2009-10

Tampa Bay

-1.6

1.96

51.6

5th

2010-11

Tampa Bay

8.0

1.80

53.0

12th

2011-12

Tampa Bay

-0.4

1.90

48.7

5th

2012-13

Tampa Bay

-6.3

1.22

50.5

2nd

Aside from this most recent season, we get an interesting picture of Malone. Obviously, he’s a capable scorer – a good scoring line option will manage 2.00 points per hour 5-on-5, and Malone is generally just a hair below that. The interesting thing is that he only has really excelled in his NHL career in years where he hasn’t played the tough minutes – we see three seasons where his team really out-shot the opposition with him on the ice, and in all three cases he wasn’t playing against power. When he played second-tier opposition, his team was more likely to hover around the break-even mark in terms of shot attempts for and against.

Not listed here, but also of interest: Malone has been a significant power play performer on the team’s he has played for and can reasonably be seen as a value-added player with the man advantage. He’s also capable of filling in on the penalty kill, though it’s been a few years since he played regular minutes.

The Cost

The cost of Malone isn’t really in the acquisition – Tampa Bay sounds willing to sweeten the deal, after all. It’s two more years at a cap hit of $4.5 million for a guy closing in on 34 with an ugly history of injury and a style that will continue putting him in harm’s way.

If he rebounds, Ryan Malone is an awfully useful player; if he doesn’t, that’s a hard contract to take on.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

maybe i missed something during the playoffs but I didnt notice Bolland all that much. Other then a 2011 he has been a bit of a non issue. Id keep Gags and give it a chance to see what he can do in the playoffs. Still would slide him to wing if we can get a 2c though.

Just a word on Dave Bolland: I don't think he's been the same ever since his real bad concussion a ways back. Definitely a marked drop off from his play in 2010.

Maybe he just needs time to get healthy or maybe he just needs a fresh start just like Jarret Stoll when he struggled returning from concussions. Given our needs for depth centres, he may be worth the risk if the price is right. His age is definitely more favourable for this Oiler group than Lecavalier's.

maybe i missed something during the playoffs but I didnt notice Bolland all that much. Other then a 2011 he has been a bit of a non issue. Id keep Gags and give it a chance to see what he can do in the playoffs. Still would slide him to wing if we can get a 2c though.

Totally agree, I made that comment in the first period of game 6 and then he scores the cup winner.

I don't see him signing for much less that $6M per year, but the term will be short 2 - 3 years max.

6 mill a year? Sarcasm??

Like everyone has been saying he's always injured, and he isn't even the same player anymore. There is no possible way he's worth 6 million a year. He was just bought out for a ridiculous contract, no one is going to turn around and go give him another one.

Jonathan, you need to fire your editor. Could someone translate this for me?

" He has one year remaining on his contract, a deal with two years remaining at a $4.5 million cap hit and only a combined total of $5 million over both season in actual salary."

From capgeek, it looks like "He has two years remaining on his contract, a deal with two years remaining at a $2.25 million cap hit per year and a combined total of $5 million in actual salary for the duration of the contract."

Jonathan, you need to fire your editor. Could someone translate this for me?

" He has one year remaining on his contract, a deal with two years remaining at a $4.5 million cap hit and only a combined total of $5 million over both season in actual salary."

From capgeek, it looks like "He has two years remaining on his contract, a deal with two years remaining at a $2.25 million cap hit per year and a combined total of $5 million in actual salary for the duration of the contract."

I'd pick up Malone for two years at 2.5 mil......along with a 3rd round draft pick....

I think they puh in an offer like.any team saying we're sending a message, but Vinny stays out east. Gotta think he can still.command 5 mil x 5, and.would make a smoking 2nd line center on most teams I would think Detroit, Washington, heck Florida.could be front runners and looking for a second line center like him. He's not going.to Canada and especially not TO or Montreal.

I don't get the math......why would Tampa pay him $7 million a year not to play if he's this smokin hot 2nd line center worth 5 mil a year. .........I get that they are shedding a too large too long contract that would become unbearable in the near future....but then why not keep and play him one more year and buy him out in the summer of 2014?

With the buy out money rolling in, Vinny likely will prioritize going somewhere he will enjoy playing hockey. Very tough sell for Edmonton, but MacT has to take a crack at Vinny if the number is under $5M.

Add Vinny at a reasonable price, deal Gagner for a defender and the Oilers are a lot closer to a playoff team.

Vinny added to our top 6 is an improvement and there is zero way of denying that.

Our top 6 is suppose to control the puck and score.. vinny doesn't get knocked off the puck easily.. he's a pt per game player.. he's good defensively.. so what he doesn't crush people... That's our bottom 6 role.. You don't hit people when you control the puck.. So again.. How wouldn't Vincent be an upgrade on what we currently sport?

Like I said, there really isn't a spot for him. He may be an improvement right now on Gagner but he isn't a long term answer. So there is no point on acquiring him. You're not bumping Gagner down to 3C as that would do more harm than good. On that token, Vinny isn't signing here to be a 3C either. You're not moving Gagner to LW with Vinny as 2C as that's a lateral move not addressing the Oiler's long term needs. So again, it really isn't an upgrade and it won't happen anyways so why bother talking about it.

Like I said, there really isn't a spot for him. He may be an improvement right now on Gagner but he isn't a long term answer. So there is no point on acquiring him. You're not bumping Gagner down to 3C as that would do more harm than good. On that token, Vinny isn't signing here to be a 3C either. You're not moving Gagner to LW with Vinny as 2C as that's a lateral move not addressing the Oiler's long term needs. So again, it really isn't an upgrade and it won't happen anyways so why bother talking about it.

Vinny would be first line center here until Hopkins or Gagner reaches up to his level . Don't kid yourselves . He's definitely an upgrade .

The Oil won't go for Vinny. Gagner isn't a 3C. Neither Gagner on the wing or Vinny at C are the "meat" we need in the top 6. He isn't a fit. We aren't trading Gagner to make room for Vinny either, that's just nonsense.

I've liked Ryan Malone for many years but he's a bit old and injury prone to be much help here. Malone about 6 years ago would be a definate yes.

Exactly especially on Malone, people have to learn to live in the now not in the past, Malone is in the Ryan Smyth category there isn't many games left to squeeze out of him. Oilers need a Colin Wilson type forward.

Yeah... That's a downgrade, it's horrible. What was I thinking, MacT hasn't said at all he wants Gags on the wing.. Nothing in that nature.. Just plain old stupidity on my part.

Why don't you join the rest of us here in 2013 your talking like the lightning just won a Stanly Cup, even Richards the guy that the Lightning would have kept if the had a do over may get bought out of his contract and was a healthy scratch the last Rangers playoff games.

Over the next three years would you really take Lecavlier over Gagner? If I am looking at the next three years going forward its pretty clear to me who the better hockey player is.

Why don't you join the rest of us here in 2013 your talking like the lightning just won a Stanly Cup, even Richards the guy that the Lightning would have kept if the had a do over may get bought out of his contract and was a healthy scratch the last Rangers playoff games.

Over the next three years would you really take Lecavlier over Gagner? If I am looking at the next three years going forward its pretty clear to me who the better hockey player is.

As of right now, I'd take Vinny as my Center with Gagner on the wing.. Yes. I thought my post was pretty clear of such a decision.